THE FIVE: Merry TV Ludachristmas

Since every TV show needs to film at least one Christmas episode a year (sometimes more), we've tracked down the best ones for you.

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Somewhere along the way, making a Christmas episode of your favorite TV show became a necessity.

Don’t ask me when – maybe it was after the stunning success of the “Growing Pains” episode where the Seaver family got robbed by a street urchin Ben unwittingly brought into the house in the worst excuse for a Grinch ripoff we’ve ever seen.

But since those humble beginnings, Christmas TV has come a long way. It’s no longer a throw-away episode just to show how “timely” they are, it’s a staple of every show’s season.

We’ll know we’ve reached the limit when “24” takes place on Christmas. Until then, here are The Five best Christmas episodes of TV, and yes, they all take place within the last 20 years or so, because that’s when the best TV has been made:

5. Family Ties, “A Keaton Christmas.” It’s an updating of “A Christmas Carol” with everyone’s favorite 80s miser, Alex P. Keaton, in the Scrooge role. I watched it last week and it still holds up and holds on to one of my favorite “Family Ties” moments, when Alex does his Christmas shopping Christmas morning at the 7-11 and gets his mom TV Guide.

4. 30 Rock, “Ludachristmas.” For two weeks from the time this episode aired last year until Christmas, every single solitary time someone mentioned Christmas, I chanted “Ludachristmas, Ludachristmas, Ludachristmas!” It has that kind of effect. Throw in Andy Richter trying to guest star on every funny-but-little-watched sitcom of the last 10 years, and that’s a keeper.

3. Seinfeld, “The Strike.” As far as I know, this is the only Christmas episode that actually makes up its own holiday. That fake holiday of Festivus, including the Feats of Strength and Airing of Grievances, has become so popular there actually are people who celebrate it as a joke or send Festivus cards. That kinda diminishes the episode’s luster to me, and I would almost argue “The Race” is a better Christmas episode of “Seinfeld.” But it’s too early to make that argument, and Festivus reins.

2. The Office, “Christmas Party.” Festivus has become its own holiday, but I know of two offices this year that decided to go with a Yankee Swap for its Christmas gift exchange. Had you ever heard of Yankee swap before The Office? Of course not. I should have seen it coming when two weeks after that episode aired, all three of my family gift exchanges were dominated by screams of “YANKEE SWAP!!!” It was on last week, and is funnier every time I watch it.

1. Homicide: Life on the Street, “All Through the House.” I’ve walked out of work late on a couple Christmas Eves, by myself, on a couple of occasions. It’s a cold, lonely, desolate feeling. Every time I did it, I thought of this episode and how jealous I was of workplaces that were this close knit, if only through circumstance. The episode is a perfect look at what it’s like working a late night shift on Christmas Eve, but it’s that 30-second snowball fight when the unit leaves the Inner Harbor precinct that almost always brings a tear to my eye. If you have to work a late night shift on Christmas Eve, then I pray you can have the feeling the “Homicide” gang walking out of work instead of the empty one you get when you walk out of work alone on Christmas Eve. Wow, that sounds depressing. Sorry. Trust me, the episode is uplifting.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.